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had a voice and insisted on trying it. She told him he had
a pleasant baritone and offered to give him lessons. At first
with his usual bashfulness he refused, but she insisted, and
then every morning at a convenient time after breakfast she
gave him an hour’s lesson. She had a natural gift for teach-
ing, and it was clear that she was an excellent governess. She
had method and firmness. Though her French accent was
so much part of her that it remained, all the mellifluousness
of her manner left her when she was engaged in teaching.
She put up with no nonsense. Her voice became a little pe-
remptory, and instinctively she suppressed inattention and
corrected slovenliness. She knew what she was about and
put Philip to scales and exercises.
When the lesson was over she resumed without effort her
seductive smiles, her voice became again soft and winning,
but Philip could not so easily put away the pupil as she the
pedagogue; and this impression convicted with the feelings
her stories had aroused in him. He looked at her more nar-
rowly. He liked her much better in the evening than in the
morning. In the morning she was rather lined and the skin
of her neck was just a little rough. He wished she would hide
it, but the weather was very warm just then and she wore
blouses which were cut low. She was very fond of white; in
the morning it did not suit her. At night she often looked
very attractive, she put on a gown which was almost a din-
ner dress, and she wore a chain of garnets round her neck;
the lace about her bosom and at her elbows gave her a pleas-
ant softness, and the scent she wore (at Blackstable no one
used anything but Eau de Cologne, and that only on Sun-

0 Of Human Bondage